nengajo (new years) card exchange?

[cteno4]

anyone up again for doing the new years card exchange? again something fun and creative to celebrate the new year like we did last year?

idea is to do something fun and creative and sent them old school snail mail instead of electronic. yell if you are interested and we can set it up again.

heres last years thread:

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,3851.0.html

cheers

jeff

[gmat]

I'm in.
Instead of a regular card, I might send or perhaps include a knick knack. I'm not a very creative or good artist.
Grant

[cteno4]

grant,

that would be cool, anything creative is the idea. im hoping to work on a knick nack as well.

jeff

[scott]

Does each person get one person to send something to, or does everybody send something to everybody?

[cteno4]

scott,

we could do it any which way folks wanted to. last year we just had folks put in their names and those that wanted to sent some out to the list. with postage and such it can start to get up there. we could do the random secret santa where each person draws like 4 or 5 names out of the hat to keep costs down.

just seemed like a fun and different way for the group to interact than the usual electron based words in the forum. i think part of our love of the japanese trains is getting some packages from all over the place, so a card (or anything of your choosing) treat seemed appropriate for a new years wish.

cheers

jeff

[ShinCanadaSen]

I'm interested in participating again this year if it's a go.  It was fun to get your cards last year.

;)

Kai

[CaptOblivious]

It was fun; I should see if there is one or two little inexpensive things I could pick up while in Japan to send out…

[cteno4]

captain, where are you going to be come new years?

jeff

[CaptOblivious]

captain, where are you going to be come new years?

jeff

Denver, but I won't have an address for sure until...right around New Year's. Have to do our apartment hunting immediately after Christmas!

[gmat]

Please send me your address and I'll send a card to anyone interested.

My address is

Grant Matsuoka
Tsurumaki 2-30-15-402
Setagaya-ku 
Tokyo, Japan
158-0016

Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

If you want, I can send a regular nengajo, rather than making my own or having a train photo on it. This year it's dragon themed. There are traditional styles, more modern styles and also character based cards, for example, Mickey Mouse. And for those inclined, AKB48 has a box but whether it's one card from your favorite girl/singer, a set or otherwise, I couldn't read which.

Best wishes,
Grant

[cteno4]

sorry i sort of fell down on this here.

so far we have these folks interested

Grant
Scott
CaptOblivious
ShinkCanadaSen
jeff

so if folks want to pm me their addresses and i can circulate a list. i think i have everyone's from last year except the captain's new address in denver.

again this is just for fun, no pressure, just a little personality to make us all grin!

cheers

jeff

[gmat]

I sent the four nengajos out today. I was trying to find a train themed card, but Tam Tam didn't have anything. Neither did any of the JR stations, or if they did, I didn't catch them. Perhaps they might have had some during the train festivals, but I didn't go to any this fall.
I printed a couple of cards with a photo of a train that I shot. Then I decided to buy a pack of store bought cards with the dragon theme. At the last moment, as I was at Meguro Station, I thought about decorating the card with the station stamp. Then at a stationary shop, I saw some new year stickers. So I decided to combine the above for my card. Sorry that it looks pretty cluttered.
I got the store cards after I left Meguro Station, so I stopped at Gakueidaigaku Station, but the station person said they didn't have one. I headed up towards Sangenjaya Station and asked at the Setagaya Line station and the station person was very cordial and helpful. The only problem was that requests to use the stamp was so infrequent that the ink on the pad was rather old and clotted up. Next time, I'll bring my own red and black pads. Hopefully they won't be using blue.
So one idea for next year is that I'll buy plain printed cards earlier and make a journey to some interesting stations around Tokyo and stamp the cards. The stamps are rather large, so only one to a card. Perhaps I'll combine it with a snap of the station and or a train that passes through.

Best wishes,
Grant

[cteno4]

Grant,

hey sounds very cool! nice to get a vicarious train trip for us not in japan!

i started out with an uber creative idea and ran out of time, so it will happen next year, this year i fell back on a deal to print my own cards at a printing service cheap.

hopefully everything gets in the mail here around the 3rd, im a little behind.

happy new yearsto all!

jeff

[linkey]

Sounds like fun, might have to be in it next year.

[CaptOblivious]

Mine are away! Finally! They are odd things we picked up in Kyoto with scratch-off areas...maybe Grant can translate the instructions?

[cteno4]

ok im behind... my uber creative idea was just too much too late so i fell back on something else to do for fun, but one of the materials took a couple of weeks to get here. all done now and going out in thrusday's mail!

grant your card came this week! thanks. made me want to take my little stamp book out on a jnr trip! on my first trip to japan i had a little spiral notebook i always carry in the satchel and started doing the kid thing and finding the stamps in each station. many times i got pointed at as not many adults were doing the stamps, especially 6'4" blonde ones. kids thought it was quite amusing!

cheers

jeff

[CaptOblivious]

Got Grants and Jeff's. Thanks guys! Very nice cards, both of them.

My cards are out now. First, I wrote the addresses in the wrong place so they all got mailed back to me. Then a bunch fell out of the mail slot and lost for a few days until the mailman found them on my step this morning!  You'll get them before the Chinese new year maybe? But they are on the way!

[gmat]

Jeff and Don,
I very deeply apologize for the tardiness of this thank you, but your cards arrived.... last month. Very Sorry. Jeff, my wife Kinuko admired the train card and wondered at the purple striped train that looks like a type of shinkansen. But I couldn't identify it either, not that I'm very knowledgeable about the type either.
Don, Kinuko also admired your card. She said that she was impressed at the 'professional' job that you did making it, especially the metallic scratch parts. Ha Ha. But she really did like it and doesn't usually comment on cards that I get. She downloads apps to make her own nengajos and produces some extras for me to send out to my friends.

Thank you both for the lovely cards.

Thanks,
Grant

[cteno4]

Grant,

You are most welcome.

The purple train is the win 350 test Shinkansen. It was designed to test speeds up to 350 kph in the early 90s

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/FcYcwtRBxL8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/FcYcwtRBxL8</a>

Cheers,

Jeff